COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONDraft

CWE-467

Use of sizeof() on a Pointer Type

The code calls sizeof() on a pointer type, which can be an incorrect calculation if the programmer intended to determine the size of the data that is being pointed to.

Soyutlama

Variant

Yapı

Simple

Sömürü İhtimali

High

Problemi anla

Problem nedir?

The code calls sizeof() on a pointer type, which can be an incorrect calculation if the programmer intended to determine the size of the data that is being pointed to.

Genişletilmiş açıklama

The use of sizeof() on a pointer can sometimes generate useful information. An obvious case is to find out the wordsize on a platform. More often than not, the appearance of sizeof(pointer) indicates a bug.

Kök neden

Problem nasıl ve ne zaman oluşur?

Yaşam döngüsü evresi

Implementation

Risk

Başarılı sömürü neye yol açar?

Modify MemoryRead Memory

Etkilenen güvenlik alanları: Integrity, Confidentiality

This error can often cause one to allocate a buffer that is much smaller than what is needed, leading to resultant weaknesses such as buffer overflows.

Savunma

Nasıl önlenir ve çözülür?

Implementation

Uygulama aşaması savunması

Detay
Use expressions such as "sizeof(*pointer)" instead of "sizeof(pointer)", unless you intend to run sizeof() on a pointer type to gain some platform independence or if you are allocating a variable on the stack.

Doğrulama

Nasıl tespit edilir?

Automated Static Analysis

High
Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)